Like many other foreigners, Rosalind Oliver's first touch of Chinese Tai Chi came from popular kung fu movies. However, she has become a Tai Chi master herself, teaching it to both Chinese and foreigners.
Oliver's journey with Tai Chi began in her early 20s, when her backache was always troubling her and she was turning to an exercise. Then she discovered advertisement classes about Tai Chi by accident and decided to try the "mysterious" eastern sport. Right away Oliver fell in love with the beautiful movement of Tai Chi. To her joy, she found that her back pains disappeared after years of practice.
Oliver later met her late husband, who was also her Tai Chi teacher. In the early 1990s, the couple opened their own Tai Chi school in the UK. To further understand Tai Chi, they decided to start a journey to China. However, three years after moving to Shanghai in 2000, her husband died, leaving her alone to work on Tai Chi.
The 58-year-old British woman recalled that it was a hard time for her. However, she was thankful to Chinese friends in Shanghai who supported her through the painful process. "They didn't treat me like a foreigner, but rather like a friend." Oliver said.
In 2005, Oliver set up the Double Dragon Alliance Cultural Center, which acts as a bridge for foreign people to get a better understanding of Chinese culture such as traditional Chinese medicine and Peking Opera.
Besides her Tai Chi classes, Oliver now teaches English at Shanghai University. Oliver expressed her deep love for cultural exchange and hoped to spread her work in this area.
